Resolutions 2018https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/tzedek-justice/resolutions/resolutions-2018
enResolution on Ugandan Jews and Israelhttps://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/node/40036
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Resolution on Ugandan Jews and Israel</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span lang="" about="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/user/17031" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" content="ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org" xml:lang="">ADakin@rabbini…</span></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Wed, 02/28/2018 - 12:52</span>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><div style="margin-bottom:10px"><b>Posted on: </b>Wednesday February 28, 2018</div><!--break-->
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, in the Jewish tradition, the Land of Israel is the irreplaceable spiritual home and center of the Jewish people, providing an unparalleled immersive context to live and practice Judaism; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, this predominance is vouchsafed in modern times by the State of Israel which, from its founding, has encouraged world Jewry to visit and settle the Land of Israel; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, converts to Judaism, regardless of their national origin, are privy to this privilege and its blessings, both in Jewish law and in Israeli law; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, the Abayudaya Community of Uganda, whose path towards Judaism is almost 100 years old, converted to Judaism under the auspices of the Conservative Movement beginning in 2002, fulfilling all the ritual and halachic requisites, their communities have been members of the Masorti Movement, thus making the Abayudaya Community of Uganda a regular and recognized community of Conservative Jews like any other; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas the Israeli immigration authorities have systematically delayed, blocked, or rejected the Visa applications of Abayudaya Jews to come visit and study in Israel and participate, through the MASA program, in programs like the Conservative Yeshiva or Pardes, which have immensely benefited Diaspora Jews from the Developed World; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, in December 2017, <u><a href="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/story/rabbinical-assembly-calls-israel-admit-yehuda-kimani-student-visa" target="_blank">Mr. Yehuda Kimani</a></u>, who converted through the auspices of the Abayudaya community and was coming for a brief session of study at the Conservative Yeshiva, was denied entry to the State of Israel despite having a valid visa and was deported upon arrival; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas the Ministry of Interior refuses to recognize the Abayudaya as a recognized Jewish community, thus denying many benefits like visa waivers to study in Israel, Masa scholarship eligibility, and the possibility of making aliyah.</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Therefore, be it resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly should devote resources to raise awareness among our communities, our allies, and our leaders about the incredible contributions and potential of the Abayudaya community; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly stand behind the undeniable fact that the Abayudaya are a legitimate Jewish community and that it must be recognized as such by the Jewish State; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved, since the Abayudaya are a legitimate Jewish community, its members, including Mr. Yehudah Kimani, must be welcomed into the State of Israel as would any other Jew from the Diaspora; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its members to reach out to the Abayudaya, and invite emerging Abayudaya leaders to our communities, camps, and organizations to build bridges between this inspiring community and the rest of the Masorti/Conservative Movement.</span></span></p>
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<section class="field field--name-comment-node-story field--type-comment field--label-hidden comment-wrapper"></section>Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:52:57 +0000ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org40036 at https://www.rabbinicalassembly.orghttps://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/node/40036#commentsResolution on the Opioid Epidemic in the United States and Canadahttps://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/node/40041
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Resolution on the Opioid Epidemic in the United States and Canada</span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span lang="" about="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/user/17031" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" content="ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org" xml:lang="">ADakin@rabbini…</span></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Wed, 02/28/2018 - 12:55</span>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><div style="margin-bottom:10px"><b>Posted on: </b>Wednesday February 28, 2018</div><p><!--break--></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, according to the United States Department of Health and Human services, currently 175 people die every day from opioid related drug overdoses in the United States, and at least 1,460 deaths have occurred in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/24/the-canadian-fix-to-the-opioid-crisis-a-vending-machine-that-distributes-prescription-opioids-to-addicts/?utm_term=.a779195de37b">Canada</a> in the first half of 2017 with projections of over 4,000 for the year when all data have been reported; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, in the last 16 years, more than <u><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/data/overdose.html" target="_blank">200,000 Americans</a></u> have died from overdoses related to prescription opioid use; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, in 2016 alone, more than 11.5 million Americans ages 12 and older reported misuse of prescription opioids and nearly 950,000 Americans reported heroin use; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, in Canada in the western provinces, from <u><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/publications/healthy-living/apparent-opioid-related-deaths-report-2016-2017-december.html" target="_blank">January to June 2017</a></u>, 74% of apparent opioid-related deaths involved fentanyl or fentanyl analogues, compared to 53% in 2016; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, death rates from opioids in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/01/24/the-canadian-fix-to-the-opioid-crisis-a-vending-machine-that-distributes-prescription-opioids-to-addicts/?utm_term=.a779195de37b">British Columbia</a> (30.2 per 100,000 people) from January to October 2017 are comparable to the highest death rates in American states (Delaware and Rhode Island, 30.8 per 100,000); and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, modern science and medicine has demonstrated that addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disease rather than a moral failing[1] ;and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, both Presidents Obama and Trump have called public attention to the emergency nature of the opioid health crisis in the United States of America; and </span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, the economic costs related to the illicit use of drugs in the United States of America are in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year while the industries,[2] individuals, and companies that provide and profit from illegal opioid and other illicit drug sales represent business in the hundreds of billions of dollars; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, the Torah teaches, "<em>Hishamer l'kha</em>...," "...take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously," (Deut. 4:9) which Judaism has interpreted as a command to care for both the health of one’s body and soul, encompassing also one's emotional health and, "<em>Lo ta'amod al dam re'ekha</em>," "You must not stand idly by the blood of your fellow," understood by our tradition to teach our responsibility to bring healing to all in need (S.A. Yoreh Deah 336:1); and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, effective medical treatments such as methadone, buprenorphine, and Vivitrol are readily available for people with opioid dependence and have demonstrated higher success rates in preventing relapse and overdose, and are harm reduction methods; we also recognize the efficacy of abstinence and recovery methods that treat the whole person including underlying causes of addiction, and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, the Rabbinical Assembly has consistently taken public positions to safeguard the health and welfare all of God’s children everywhere, and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Whereas, during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s once the stigma of the disease was lifted, many more people sought treatment and many more lives could be saved,</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Therefore, be it resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its members and supporters to educate themselves and their communities and speak about the issues of the opioid crisis and addiction forcefully and publicly, in a way that de-stigmatizes those suffering from addiction and their families, and that encourages acceptance and tolerance, through the understanding that addiction is a chronic relapsing condition that needs to be treated through medical, emotional, and spiritual approaches, and not by incarceration; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its partner organizations in the Conservative/Masorti Movement, and in the wider Jewish world, to use their educational and teaching resources to shed light on this national and international emergency, and provide education to those who might be vulnerable and their families; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage local, regional and national legislative and administrative governmental bodies to better monitor physicians and drug manufacturers to prevent drug diversion and illicit use of prescription opioids; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly urge governmental agencies to make medication assisted treatments (MAT) prescribed by qualified professionals including methadone, buprenorphine, and Vivitrol widely available and affordable to people with opioid dependence and to insist that insurance companies provide maximum reimbursement to patients and clinics for such treatment; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its members and supporters to educate themselves about the problems of addiction in their own communities and take leadership roles in helping allay this tragedy; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its members serving congregations to host 12 Step meetings in their synagogues, including MAT-friendly Narcotics Anonymous programs; and</span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly encourage its members and supporters to provide pastoral care, guidance, and encouragement to those families and individuals afflicted with addiction and to make appropriate referrals for treatment when needed.</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<hr /><p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif">[1] <a href="https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-basics" target="_blank">https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/media-guide/science-drug-abuse-addiction-basics</a><br />
[2] <a href="https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs44/44731/44731p.pdf" target="_blank">https://www.justice.gov/archive/ndic/pubs44/44731/44731p.pdf</a> - page 4</span></span></p>
<p> </p>
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Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:55:06 +0000ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org40041 at https://www.rabbinicalassembly.orgResolution on the Rohingya Crisis https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/node/40046
<span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Resolution on the Rohingya Crisis </span>
<span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span lang="" about="https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/index.php/user/17031" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" content="ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org" xml:lang="">ADakin@rabbini…</span></span>
<span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Wed, 02/28/2018 - 13:07</span>
<div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><div style="margin-bottom:10px"><b>Posted on: </b>Wednesday February 28, 2018</div><!--break-->
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas the Rohingya, a Muslim minority resident population in what is now Myanmar/Burma that dates back to the 15th century, has suffered discrimination and persecution since at least the end of World II and 1948, when Myanmar/Burma gained its independence; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas proscription and persecution of the Rohingya under successive military governments have increased progressively since the late 1970’s, with denial of education, economic opportunity, even identity, ghettoization and loss of citizenship; and</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas the rabbis of the Talmud forbid selling “weapons or accessories of weapons” to dangerous individuals or groups, as well as “grind[ing] any weapon” or even selling a certain kind of iron predominantly used for weapons lest we find ourselves contributing to bloodshed (Avodah Zarah 15b-16a); and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas Rambam explains that this prohibition extends to selling “anything injurious to the public, like the weapons of war or instruments of torture. . . in order to not aid the destroyers of the world in destroying.” (Commentary to the Mishnah, AZ 1:7); and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas attacks on local police posts and one military base by small, uncoordinated insurgent groups of Rohingya in 2016-17 have been used as a pretext for the military to wage the equivalent of pogroms on Rohingya villages in the name of anti-terrorism, forcing an estimated 640,000, a majority of the population, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where they have been interned as refugees in what is, in effect, a massive rural slum; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the United States Department of State, and the British government as well as global media like The New York Times have documented and condemned the assault on the Rohingya as ethnic cleansing, the </span><u><a href="https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-releases/museum-statement-on-the-violence-against-burmas-rohingya-population" style="color: rgb(36, 72, 142); background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color:transparent">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum</span></a></u><span style="background-color:transparent"> considers them the minority most at risk of genocide, and UN and US officials have discussed the possibility of prosecution of those responsible for crimes against humanity; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas there is not currently a workable solution to the statelessness of the Rohingya, since absorption of 650,000 people with minimal skills and no resources is not an option, and </span><u><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/asia/bangladesh-rohingya-repatriation-fears-intl/index.html" style="color: rgb(36, 72, 142); background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color:transparent">a recent repatriation agreement is both unworkable and unenforceable</span></a></u><span style="background-color:transparent">;[1] and;</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas a minority population with no sanitation, no potable drinking water and no future is a threat to public health and regional stability with global implications; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Whereas we as Jews are especially struck by the startling parallels between the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and German treatment of Jews – the Nuremberg laws, the “Kristallnacht” pogrom of 1938, the Einsatzgruppen in Poland and the Soviet Union;</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly and its members from nations around the world will urge our elected representatives to press the government of Myanmar/Burma in all possible ways such as trade sanctions, denial of arms transfers and denial of visas in order to protect the Rohingya community; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly and its members will join organizations already active on this issue through the Jewish Rohingya Justice Network about ways we can help the Rohingya; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly commend the leadership of the United States Senate and House of Representatives for strongly passing resolutions condemning the violence against the Rohingya and calling for sanctions against the government of Myanmar; and</span></span></span></p>
<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">Be it further resolved that the Rabbinical Assembly will work to acquaint our organizations with, and remind our constituents of, the nature and magnitude of the ethnic cleansing being brutally waged against the Rohingya by Burma/Myanmar, and remind them that now is the time to speak out - Never Again.</span></span></span></p>
<hr /><p><span style="font-size:12px"><span style="font-family:verdana,geneva,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">[1] </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/asia/bangladesh-rohingya-repatriation-fears-intl/index.html" style="color: rgb(36, 72, 142); background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; outline: none;" target="_blank">https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/23/asia/bangladesh-rohingya-repatriation-fears-intl/index.html</a></span></span></p>
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Wed, 28 Feb 2018 18:07:02 +0000ADakin@rabbinicalassembly.org40046 at https://www.rabbinicalassembly.org